Whilst most of the work that you'll do will happen in your main account, sometimes you might want another place to safely experiment away from your live data.
Beacon Sandboxes are great for a variety of scenarios, such as:
Design and experiment with changes to an existing process
Test new imports, workflows, or forms safely
Train new staff on dummy data, or where changes won't affect anything
Develop a custom API integration without exposing or changing live data
Trial a new app or integration
Whatever it might be, having a space away from real data and live systems takes the pressure off!
Note: Sandbox accounts are available for customers on the Ultimate plan.
If you are on another plan, you can instead create a new trial account to experiment! Trials have a 30 day expiry. Click your account name in the top right and choose '+ Create new'.
What is a sandbox?
Beacon Sandbox accounts are, quite simply, copies of your main account. Once copied, they are completely independent of your main account, so you can safely experiment with them or change data and configuration without affecting your 'live' database.
What is copied to your sandbox?
Some things are always copied when creating a sandbox. Other things you can choose if they are included, or get more granular about what gets brought over.
Always copied
Database structure
Record types
Fields
Record layout
Field order
Card configuration
Related record and metric cards
Alerts
Most settings
Optionally copied
Forms
Can also choose which form types
Views
Can also choose which record types
Users
Can also choose which users
Roles
Dashboards (if shared)
Import templates
Workflows
Not copied
Records/data
Export templates
Document templates
Email templates
Custom relationship settings
Gift Aid Government Gateway username, password, and registration number
How do I create a sandbox?
To get a copy of your account, reach out to your dedicated Customer Success Manager who will be able to get it set up and invite you to it. If you're unsure who your CSM is, simply pop us an email at [email protected] and we'll get you introduced!
Let them know what you'd like copied over. Try to keep your copies as lean as possible - there's no need to bring over your last 4 years of forms if you're not using the sandbox for testing them!
How long does a sandbox last?
Ultimate plan customers receive:
1 permanent sandbox account (no expiry)
Unlimited temporary sandboxes (3-month expiry)
You can delete your sandboxes at any time from Settings > Charity preferences. If you would like an updated version of your permanent sandbox we can create a new one for you at any time.
Frequently asked questions
Is this a full deployment system? Can I "push to production" or sync with our live database?
No, sandboxes are completely independent copies of an account, and don't have any special functionality once copied. They are designed to trial ideas and experiment safely, but are not a custom deployment pipeline.
Any changes made in a sandbox that you would like to have in your main account would need to be added manually.
What happens to filters for specific records when we copy an account without those records e.g. 'Event is Spring Gala'?
If you have a filter for a point to another record field that references a specific record, this filter will error because that record does not exist in your copied account.
For example, this filter for 'Event is Spring Gala' in your main account...
...would copy without the record and therefore be blank...
Which would leave it as an invalid filter and therefore not applied.
If there were multiple filters applied, the others would continue to work without the invalid one; it doesn't break the whole filter!